Just a Summer Evening
by CoffeeKris
Summary: A response to the King's prompt and practice for a rust writer.


**CoffeeKris: I'm ALIVE! As a few of you may know, I've moved to Ireland and was busy quite dead as far as writing goes for awhile. Apologies to any readers of my unfinished business. However, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things. I'm pretty rusty though, so bear with me! This is a response to our most loved Goblin King's prompt, which demanded the following: It's summer, rain, honeysuckle, a riding crop, a life size crystal unicorn, a romantic interlude between Jareth and Sarah.**

**Enjoy! **

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><p>Throughout her last semester of university and throughout the hellish winter and exams that preceded it, all Sarah looked forward to was summer. During the most hellish assignments, the worst exams and the most boring classes, the idea that summer was coming was Sarah's go-to escape. However, now that summer was half way through, Sarah was absolutely done with it. Something about a high humidity index and temperatures capable of frying bacon on your car roof, had made Sarah begin to long for fall.<p>

The central air in the house had died two days ago and with its passing came a rise in tempers throughout the house. Sarah's father refused to spend money on fans when they wouldn't need them after the air was fixed and Sarah's stepmother was adamant that it would be a better idea to get at least one or two fans for some relief. The argument between the two was the only remotely cold thing in the house. There was, at least, some escape at work. The ice cream parlour Sarah was working in as she contemplated what to do with her new degree, was a welcome escape from the seething heat outside. Unfortunately, spending all day in the cool refrigeration of the parlour only worsened Sarah's suffering when she returned home.

In an effort to escape the heat of the house and the tempers within it, Sarah took to sitting out on the front porch. After nightfall, a light breeze tended to blow, making the porch more bearable than inside. Tonight, it was going to rain, Sarah could almost taste it. The atmosphere was heavy with the scent of the trees, grass and honeysuckle growing in the front garden. She hoped it was a good dose of rain, the heat would lessen and hopefully the humidity of the past few days would fade away.

The breeze and the smell of rain was slowly lulling Sarah to sleep when she heard the creek of the screen door, off to her side.

"Hey Tobes," she greeted, watching the grumpy seven year old trudge over. "What's up?"

"It's hot, and Mom and Dad are fighting about fans again." He sighed, flopping dramatically into the seat next to her. She stifled a smile.

"Yeah, the heat makes people cranky. Looks like it'll rain tonight, though, so maybe it won't be so hot tomorrow."

Toby nodded, still looking glum.

"Something wrong, Toby?" Sarah eyed her little brother curiously; he wasn't usually so downtrodden, even when the weather wasn't particularly nice. He hesitated, kicking his feet for a minute before he responded.

"Sarah, can you keep a secret?" he turned to her with the most serious eyes a seven year old can possess. She nodded, equally solemn. "Ok," he said, "but I've gotta whisper it, cause it's not a secret if you don't whisper it."

Sarah smiled at his logic and bent down to allow Toby to whisper to her. He looked both ways, whether to make sure no one was there or because that too was secret protocol, Sarah didn't know.

"Today….at camp….Tina kissed me!" Toby, having divulged his secret, backed up and looked at Sarah with an utterly miserable expression.

To her credit, Sarah resisted blurting out the sequence of "AWWWWs" and the "That is so cute!'s" that were running through her mind. Instead, she nodded seriously, smothering her smile, and asked "Is that what has you all grumpy, I thought Tina was your friend?"

Toby nodded and looked down at the ground before heaving a sigh. "That's what's confusing. She was s'posed to be my friend but then she kissed me! It was gross and now we gotta get married!"

Sarah nearly choked on her laughter at that. "Uh, Tobes. No need to worry. You don't have to get married." Toby eyed Sarah warily.

"Are you sure? Drew says that if you kiss a girl, you gotta marry her and have kids with her, cause it's the right thing to do."

Sarah chuckled. "I promise, you don't have to marry Tina. Why don't you tell Tina that you really like her but that you think you should hold off on the kisses until you're older?"

"Can't I just tell her kisses are gross!" Toby made a face and Sarah smiled.

"Just let her know you're still friends and try not to hurt her feelings."

Toby sighed and looked like someone who'd just dodged a bullet.

"Kay. Thanks Sarah!"

With a blinding smile, Toby hopped off his seat and went back inside. Sarah smiled and shook her head. _Lucky kid, his biggest problem is that a girl kissed him. Meanwhile, I have to figure out what to do with my life. Joy. _Summer was half way through and Sarah still wasn't sure what she wanted to do come the fall. She knew she should apply for the sorts of jobs one can get with a degree, knew she should move to an apartment of her own, knew she should start a career….but knowing something is different from knowing what to do about it. She felt as though whatever decision she made was going to be absolutely irreversible, even though she knew that was silly.

Thinking about her life path, and she snorted at even calling it that, always ended the same way; she ended up thumping her head against the wall behind her. Gently, but still…thumping. It was during this head thumping that the Goblin King made his appearance. Sarah didn't startle, didn't even acknowledge he'd arrived. It was a long standing tradition between the two. Since defeating his Labyrinth, Sarah was often visited by Jareth. After so many years of him popping in and out of her life, Sarah didn't even bother greeting him; partly because she knew it annoyed him and partly because….well mostly because she knew it annoyed him. He sat next to her and quirked a regal eyebrow.

"Sarah…you are aware you're hitting your heat repeatedly?" he asked, voice full of mock sincerity. She stopped and rolled her eyes.

"Nooooooooooo. Really? Gee, thanks for telling me." If sarcasm could kill, the Goblin King would have been mortally wounded. As it was, he smirked.

"And _why_ are you punishing your poor head?"

"I'm frustrated."

"Well, I ascertained that much on my own, precious. So, again, I ask, _why_?"

Sarah sighed heavily and shrugged.

"Just normal, growing up, life stuff. I have to figure out what I'm going to do now that I'm out of university and all the decision making is frustrating."

Jareth made a small tutting sound. "My poor dear, forced to make decisions. Shall I cheer you up, precious?" With a small flick of his wrist, he sent a crystal to the front lawn were it morphed into a large statue of crystal.

Sarah gave him a look, half amused and half confused. "A life-size, crystal statue of a unicorn is supposed to cheer me up?"

He shrugged elegantly. "It was either that or a metal badger brandishing a riding crop."

She shook her head with a smile. "Ok, crystal life sized unicorn _almost_ makes sense, in that it is sort of like your kind of senseless sense, but metal badger with a riding crop, makes no sense at all."

He gave her a look of pure amusement. "I beg to differ, a metal badger _brandishing _a riding crop, makes perfect sense. Unlike the sentence you just uttered."

This time, Sarah smirked. She was enjoying one of the rare times in which the two could engage in banter without it being heated and angry.

"Awwww, Goblin King can't handle a little complexity?"

He gave her a look that said _I fully intend to devour you._

"I _adore_ complexity." The words might as well have been molten chocolate but Sarah just smiled and shook her head.

"Good for you. Can you get rid of the unicorn now? It's a bit…much for the front yard, I think."

He heaved a sigh. "As you wish, precious." He quickly waved a hand and the crystal statue was gone. Sarah just shook her head.

"So, am I safe in assuming you didn't show up just to find out what the head banging session was about?"

He gave her a look a pure innocence, which might have worked if he hadn't been smirking.

"Whatever gave you the idea I would need a reason to visit my Labyrinth's champion? Perhaps I merely wished to see how you were faring today."

"Yeah, because it's not as though you try to convince me to come away with you every time you show up. Nope, it's just a visit to see how I'm doing. Never mind that I might be in class or at work or in the shower…and I really hope I don't have to remind you that if one of your 'visits' just so happens to be while I'm showering, again, I'll be forced to bludgeon you with something." She gave him a level look, arms crossed, which usually meant that the friendly conversational portion of their time together was over.

"Oh precious, you do think the worst of me. I assure you, the shower-incident was a complete accident…" His protestation of innocence faded to a grin with the incredulous look on Sarah's face. Being as experienced a ruler as he was, he knew when it was time for a subject change, before Sarah got her hands on anything to bludgeon him with. He took a deep breath.

"Smells like a storm is coming." He grinned at Sarah. "Come, let me show you something." He held out a hand and gave her the same look Toby gave her every Christmas when he wanted her to come downstairs.

Sarah just huffed out a breath and took Jareth's hand. He was hard to keep up with sometimes and she'd learned after a while that it was often better to just go along with whatever plan he had hatched. The two walked off the porch and were deep within some sort of forest within minutes. Sarah quirked an eyebrow at Jareth, she was pretty certain this wasn't an Aboveground forest and as much as she was used to him, she still wasn't completely comfortable with the whole 'whisking her underground without notice' thing. He put a finger to his lips and lead her to stand beside a large, twisted tree. He pointed to a small clearing before them, just a few trees ahead.

Throughout the clearing were what looked like dandelion seeds, floating and flittering about as though caught in a whirlwind of their own design. Suddenly one sparked and spun in dizzying circles until it careened into another and both sparked before repeating the same design. The pattern continued until all of the little fluffs were twirling in circles and sparking each time they collided. It was like watching fireflies doing ballet at high speed, but somehow it was beautiful.

"What are they?" Sarah whispered.

"Stormflies. They're a distant cousin to fairies and pixies. Every time there is a storm coming, Above or Underground, they do this."

The two just stood in silence, watching the bizarre little dance until it eventually ended. Without a word, Jareth slipped his hand into Sarah's and the two were back on her porch. The storm had started some time while they were gone and they both just watched it a while. Sarah, forgetting her hand was being held and Jareth, loathe to remind her.

"Jareth?"

"Hmmm?"

"For the record, that was way better than a crystal unicorn."

He smirked. "Even better than a metal badger?"

She nodded seriously. "Much better."

He smiled gently. "I'm glad."

He brought their joined hands to his mouth and kissed her fingers before releasing her hand and disappearing. Sarah smiled and looked at her hand. Sometimes it was difficult to remember why she fought him so hard, especially when he did something entirely sweet and unexpected. Yawning, Sarah went inside and headed for bed. She opened the door to her room and immediately closed it again, praying she wasn't seeing what she thought she was seeing. She opened the door and it was confirmed. There was a life sized crystal unicorn in her room.


End file.
